The Perfect Husband: A nail biting gripping psychological thriller. Buffy Andrews

Chapter Twenty-Six

       Chapter Twenty-Seven

       Chapter Twenty-Eight

       Chapter Twenty-Nine

       Chapter Thirty

       Chapter Thirty-One

       Chapter Thirty-Two

       Chapter Thirty-Three

       Chapter Thirty-Four

       Chapter Thirty-Five

       Chapter Thirty-Six

       Chapter Thirty-Seven

       Chapter Thirty-Eight

       Chapter Thirty-Nine

       Epilogue

       Acknowledgments

       Excerpt

       Endpages

       About the publisher

Chapter 1

      I looked in the mirror and no longer recognized myself. I hated my life and had thought about taking it.

      No one would miss me.

      I was a zero.

      Nothing.

      Zilch.

Chapter 2

      A Year Ago

      I couldn’t believe Jackie had talked me into this. After a bitter divorce, brought about by my husband’s affair five years ago, I swore I’d never date again. But here I was going through profiles on an online dating website. I must be insane! Did I really want a man in my life? I’d been on a couple of blind dates since my divorce and both ended in disaster. The first guy spat spaghetti sauce in my face when he laughed during dinner and the second paid the bill with three different gift cards. If I ever dated a guy again, he’d have to be exceptional.

      I sat on the couch with my cat Izzy curled up next to me. I started laughing and Izzy’s head popped up. ‘Sorry, girl. Didn’t mean to scare you but this guy apparently thinks wearing a blue work vest with “May I Help You?” printed on the front is sexy.’ She purred and I scratched her neck. ‘Yeah, I know. No man is better than some man.’ I looked at a few more profiles, including one bare-chested guy wearing a baseball cap with the tagline: Cowboy seeks his cowgirl. Uh, no. Not for me. Nor was the guy whose plan it was to find a ‘good woman and build an empire around her’ or the guy who noted ‘I have a washer and dryer at my house so a first date at the Laundromat is out.’

      ‘Good God, Izzy, are all men jerks?’

      Just when I was about to give up I stumbled upon a profile that seemed normal: EricT. He liked the outdoors and considered himself to be adventurous, spontaneous and fun-loving. He looked handsome. Unlike most of the profiles I’d seen, EricT had a full head of hair and straight teeth. Drats! He lived two hours away. Long-distance relationships rarely work out. And I certainly had no intention of moving.

      I’d spent the past five years focusing on my real estate career. I’d regained some of the confidence I’d lost when my ten-year marriage to Scott ended in a firestorm after I caught him cheating.

      I was thirty-two when I married Scott. My sorority sisters teased me about being the last one married. Most of them were married before they hit the quarter-century mark, but I wasn’t in a hurry. I didn’t plan on getting married more than once so I wanted to make sure I made the right decision. Turned out it was the wrong one!

      I was now forty-seven and while I didn’t need a man to make me happy, I missed the intimacy and companionship.

      When Scott and I started to have problems in our marriage, I wondered if things would have been different if I could’ve given him children. But over time I realized he was the problem, not me. I was the one who battled cervical cancer a year after we got married. He should have been there for me instead of rolling between the sheets with what I now believe had been a long list of women. He was a cheat, and I was better off without him.

      I sat my laptop on the coffee table and went into the kitchen to make a salad for dinner. I’d been trying to eat healthier. The change of life had knocked on my door, and it had brought unwelcome guests: Weight and High Blood Pressure!

      I was loading the dishwasher when my best friend Jackie called.

      ‘Hey, Jack. I was just going to call you.’

      ‘Sure, sure.’

      ‘No, honest. I just finished eating.’

      ‘Have anything good?’

      ‘The usual. A—’

      ‘No, wait! Let me guess. A salad topped with chicken, cucumbers and vinaigrette dressing.’

      I laughed. ‘Am I that predictable?’

      ‘Yes. You need to learn to be more adventurous when it comes to eating – and dating.’

      ‘Whoa! Wait a minute. Who says I’m not adventurous when it comes to dating? As a matter of fact, I signed up for that online dating site you’ve been bugging me about.’

      ‘When?’

      ‘The other day.’

      ‘The other day!’ Jackie’s voice was so loud I had to hold the phone away from my ear. ‘And you’re just telling me now?’

      ‘I was going to tell you. Honest. I just wanted to see if I saw anything interesting first.’

      ‘And did you?’

      ‘Not really. Well, maybe one. At least he had straight teeth and hair.’

      Jackie laughed. ‘Is it really that bad?’

      I walked to the sofa and sat down. ‘Shopping for a guy online feels weird.’

      ‘But you do almost all of your shopping online,’ Jackie said.

      ‘This is different. It’s not like I’m buying a new blazer or blouse.’

      ‘But it’s efficient. Much easier than striking up a conversation with a stranger at the gym or in the produce section of a supermarket. Dating websites bring like-minded people together.’

      ‘I guess I just don’t have a lot of faith in a dating website algorithm. In some ways, I think technology makes getting to know someone harder. Let’s face it, most people probably lie on their profiles, and it’s difficult to gauge sincerity when you don’t see facial expressions or body language.’

      ‘But if it goes well online, you eventually meet and see all that,’ Jackie said.

      I